SAP-Centric Projects

Overview

When considering the three project layers, tracking progress is definitely a transaction to be performed on the project-specific layer. Progress reporting can mean different things to different people. Here let us define it as reporting of "% complete" of a project activity AND the reporting of remaining work. The latter part requires to know charges of planned and actual hours, covered above.

In standard SAP, confirmations containing "% complete" can only be charged to PS activities. Therefore there is a limitation for how progress of maintenance work could be handled in SAP only. In otehr words, earned value analysis (EVA) cannot really be performed for maintenance management in SAP PM.

Status Changes 

This topic also needs to consider status changes. SAP has elaborate status management capabilities. A status in SAP defines what transactions are allowed or not allowed to be performed for a certain object (like a WBS element or activity). Besides a large number of standard "system status" options, SAP can also use configurable "user status" options to get more elaborate.

Milestones

Discussions about progress management would be incomplete without touching on the role that SAP milestones can play. Depending on their usage and configuration, milestones can trigger workflow items like billing or provide input for earned value analysis. Progress and status management is therefore likely to impact such aspects.

Integration and External Systems

Even though SAP PS has progress reporting and analysis capabilities, their use only makes sense in certain circumstances. One of them is if SAP PS only is being used as the project layer management tool. This is only to some degree possible when managing maintenance processes, whether routine or turnaround. If the external system used as a project controls instrument is not primarily SAP, then it is likely that progress will get reported in that system - requiring a loading up of that information into SAP.

Status changes in external systems should also be reported back to SAP so that synchronizations can be performed more effectively. For example, completed activities should not be synchronized anymore but their status should be set to "closed" or "technically complete" in SAP so that they are no longer included when performing daily tasks. System status messages in SAP are typically triggered through "100% complete" and "Final confirmation" checks in confirmation screens.

There is also a feedback loop that may go in the other direction - from SAP to the external scheduling system. Material or service receipts, even actual hours, are likely to come into SAP first, so that they need to be reconciled back into the project owner's system.